2 Samuel 3:12

3:12 Then Abner sent messengers ¹  to David saying, “To whom does the land belong? Make an agreement ²  with me, and I will do whatever I can ³  to cause all Israel to turn to you.”

2 Samuel 3:21

3:21 Abner said to David, “Let me leave so that I may go and gather all Israel to my lord the king so that they may make an agreement ⁴  with you. Then you will rule over all that you desire.” So David sent Abner away, and he left in peace.

2 Samuel 4:4

4:4 Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. ⁵  Mephibosheth was his name.

2 Samuel 6:19

6:19 He then handed out to each member of the entire assembly of Israel, ⁶  both men and women, a portion of bread, a date cake, ⁷  and a raisin cake. Then all the people went home. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 7:7-8

7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ⁹  to any of the leaders ¹⁰  whom I appointed to care for ¹¹  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd ¹²  to make you leader of my people Israel.

2 Samuel 7:19

7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ¹³  Is this your usual way of dealing with men, ¹⁴  O Lord God?

2 Samuel 7:27

7:27 for you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have told ¹⁵  your servant, ‘I will build you a dynastic house.’ ¹⁶  That is why your servant has had the courage ¹⁷  to pray this prayer to you.

2 Samuel 10:3

10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? ¹⁸  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ¹⁹ 

2 Samuel 12:3

12:3 But the poor man had nothing except for a little lamb he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up alongside him and his children. ²⁰  It used to ²¹  eat his food, ²²  drink from his cup, and sleep in his arms. ²³  It was just like a daughter to him.

2 Samuel 12:9

12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my ²⁴  sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! ²⁵  You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 13:32

13:32 Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, “My lord should not say, ‘They have killed all the young men who are the king’s sons.’ For only Amnon is dead. This is what Absalom has talked about ²⁶  from the day that Amnon ²⁷  humiliated his sister Tamar.

2 Samuel 14:2

14:2 So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning ²⁸  and put on garments for mourning. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Instead, act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for some time. ²⁹ 

2 Samuel 15:19-20

15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new ³⁰  king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country. ³¹  15:20 It seems like you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men ³²  with you. May genuine loyal love ³³  protect ³⁴  you!”

2 Samuel 15:25

15:25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s sight he will bring me back and enable me to see both it and his dwelling place again.

2 Samuel 18:3

18:3 But the soldiers replied, ³⁵  “You should not do this! ³⁶  For if we should have to make a rapid retreat, they won’t be too concerned about us. ³⁷  Even if half of us should die, they won’t be too concerned about us. But you ³⁸  are like ten thousand of us! So it is better if you remain in the city for support.”

2 Samuel 21:1

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ³⁹  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ⁴⁰  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ⁴¹  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ⁴²  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

2 Samuel 24:22

24:22 Araunah told David, “My lord the king may take whatever he wishes ⁴³  and offer it. Look! Here are oxen for burnt offerings, and threshing sledges ⁴⁴  and harnesses ⁴⁵  for wood.

[3:12]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text adds here, “on his behalf.”

[3:12]  ² tn Heb “cut a covenant.” So also in vv. 13, 21.

[3:12]  ³ tn Heb “and behold, my hand is with you.”

[3:21]  ⁴ tn After the cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[4:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and was lame.”

[6:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “to all the people, to all the throng of Israel.”

[6:19]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word used here אֶשְׁפָּר (’espar) is found in the OT only here and in the parallel passage found in 1 Chr 16:3. Its exact meaning is uncertain, although the context indicates that it was a food of some sort (cf. KJV “a good piece of flesh”; NRSV “a portion of meat”). The translation adopted here (“date cake”) follows the lead of the Greek translations of the LXX, Aquila, and Symmachus (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

[6:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “and all the people went, each to his house.”

[7:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

[7:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

[7:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

[7:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”

[7:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O Lord God, so you spoke concerning the house of your servant for a distance.”

[7:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).

[7:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “have uncovered the ear of.”

[7:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a house.” This maintains the wordplay from v. 11 (see the note on the word “house” there) and is continued in v. 29.

[7:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “has found his heart.”

[10:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[10:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”

[12:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his sons.”

[12:3]  ²¹ tn The three Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in this sentence have a customary nuance; they describe past actions that were repeated or typical.

[12:3]  ²² tn Heb “from his morsel.”

[12:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and on his chest [or perhaps, “lap”] it would lay.”

[12:9]  ²⁴ tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”

[12:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.

[13:32]  ²⁶ tn Heb “it was placed on the mouth of Absalom.”

[13:32]  ²⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amnon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:2]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew Hitpael verbal form here indicates pretended rather than genuine action.

[14:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “these many days.”

[15:19]  ³⁰ tn The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.

[15:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “place.”

[15:20]  ³² tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.

[15:20]  ³³ tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[15:20]  ³⁴ tn Heb “be with.”

[18:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the people said.”

[18:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “march out.”

[18:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they will not place to us heart.”

[18:3]  ³⁸ tc The translation follows the LXX (except for the Lucianic recension), Symmachus, and Vulgate in reading אָתָּה (’atta, “you”) rather than MT עָתָּה (’atta, “now”).

[21:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”

[21:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”

[23:10]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “arose.”

[23:10]  ⁴² tn Heb “his hand.”

[24:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”

[24:22]  ⁴⁴ sn Threshing sledges were heavy boards used in ancient times for loosening grain from husks. On the bottom sides of these boards sharp stones were embedded, and the boards were then dragged across the grain on a threshing floor by an ox or donkey.

[24:22]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the equipment of the oxen.”